SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) - Authorities are searching for a man who vandalized the War Memorial in National City last Saturday night in Kimball Park.
Surveillance video showed a group of males congregating on the east side of the War Memorial at Kimball Park late at night on Friday April 28th. Just before midnight, the group dispersed with the exception of one male.
The suspect was seen in the early morning hours on Saturday spray painting "petz" or similar in white letters at the lower center of the War Memorial.
The War Memorial is dedicated to World War II, Korean, Vietnam and Iraq War veterans.
"It's horrible. I am a navy veteran. My father is a Vietnam veteran. My grandfathers are both World War II veterans. It hits near and dear to me," said Cpl. Darren Pierson with the National City Police Department.
Based on the surveillance video, detectives described the suspect as a Hispanic male, 5'11", between 17 to 25 years-old with black curly hair and a full beard.
National City Police have not released the video because they believe the tagger is a juvenile.
"Based on what was spray painted on the memorial, we were able to determine it's a moniker that belongs to a local tagging crew and that has a history of tagging in our city and known by our gang enforcement team," said detective Pierson.
At the time of the incident the male was wearing a gray baseball cap, t-shirt and blue jeans. He was also wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt, which he discarded prior to tagging the memorial.
"When you walk by that memorial you should feel proud to be an American and the last thought you should have is to deface it in anyway - it is very disrespectful," said detective Pierson.
National City has a graffiti abatement program. The public can use the city's Fix It app to report graffiti.
Anyone with information is asked to call National City Police.
